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Once you have found a team of specialists eager to work for you remotely, you can sigh with relief - you don’t have to find more workplaces in your office or rent an extra one, cover insurance, vacations, order more cookies and coffee, and finally, pay for downtime. 

Besides the fact that outsourcing gives the possibility of paying only for a service delivered, companies also save a lot on programmers’ rates. The US, Western European countries, and Japan are the largest consumers of outsourcing services as developers’ rates in their countries differ significantly in comparison to China, India, Eastern Europe, and Brazil, where they outsource the most.

Cost-effectiveness is one of the most crucial benefits of offshore software development alongside a possibility to fish in a large pool of talented experts and the ability to focus on core business. According to the research held by Deloitte, 59% of companies outsource to cut down their expenses and 31% to increase the quality of the delivered services.

What is Offshoring?


Outsourcing services are divided into 3 main branches:

  1. Onshore outsourcing is partnering with a vendor from another company but in the same country. It gives an opportunity to get required services without hiring an in-house team.   
  2. Nearshore development is choosing a vendor in a nearby country. That means delegating tasks to a team that functions in a similar time zone and is geographically close to your country. It allows you to hire technical experts without employing an in-house team.
  3. Offshore outsourcing is hiring a vendor from a distant country, most frequently, from a different part of the world. Offshore outsourcing allows you to partner with geographically distant ventures and saves big sums of money.



How to Get Maximum Productivity From the Offshore Team


# Lay a Solid Foundation


If you decide to fish, make sure you catch the best fish. Check the company’s profile on independent platforms such as Clutch, GoodFirms, etc., where you can find verified reviews from customers and learn more about their core expertise and projects. 

Conduct a technical interview with developers and check their English proficiency skills as it will directly influence your communication and dynamics of development.


# Choose a Proper Cooperation Model


IT outsourcing vendors offer different cooperation models with different pricing. Usually, you can choose one of three main pricing models that fit your business requirements the most:

  1. A dedicated development team is the most frequently chosen model of cooperation due to its cost-effectiveness. You hire a team of experts that work exclusively for your project for a set period of time and regularly update you about project progress. This cooperation model is significantly cheaper compared to the two others, as you get a wider range of services for a longer period of time.
  2. Fixed Price is suitable for smaller and shorter-term projects. As you sign a contract with your vendor, you define a scope of work to be done, a fixed price, and a period of time for project delivery. When the time is up, the development team no longer makes any changes to the product.
  3. Time and Material is a good option if it's hard to estimate the amount of work to be done, services you need, and the amount of time required to complete the task. You just discuss quota for different types of services and pay for the amount of work that is done.


# Set Clear Delivery Expectations


The expectation-setting phase is the main prerequisite for successful and on-time product delivery. You must be transparent about your perspectives for quality, team size, and services you need to outsource for your product in order to avoid unforeseen costs and exclude possible delays. Prepare a clear agreement that outlines rules regarding working management and invoicing, defined means and regularity of communication, and progress tracking tools. 


# Hire a Project Manager


As you won’t be able to supervise the team in person, you need someone to do it instead of you. This person is a project manager who will not only organize and monitor the development process but suggest powerful solutions and tactics based on their experience managing other projects. Frequently clients don’t have expertise in techy things, that’s why the existence of such a position significantly simplifies the workflow. A project manager is a kind of mediator between the client and the development team who speaks the languages of both.


# Evaluate the Progress and Provide Instant Feedback


While offshoring presupposes mutual understanding and trust, there is still a need for progress evaluation on the client side. You can use different time tracking software as well as project tracking tools to evaluate how much time the offshore team spends per task. Some of the most popular tools for progress tracking include:


# Foster communication


Communication is a strong pillar of successful outsourcing software development. Unfortunately, it’s also its Achilles’ heel. Living in different countries and sometimes different parts of the world with your vendor doesn’t usually enhance your cooperation. So, it’s important to choose a vendor with whom at least 1 or 2 of your working hours coincide. How to improve communication with offshore teams? Visualize the time difference using, for example, World clock meeting planner, and arrange communication channels and regular time for meetings with the team. 

Alongside time differences come language and cultural barriers. The National Outsourcing Association in the UK states that 75% of their survey respondents said that they “would take more account of culture next time”. Evaluate if there is any difference in organizational culture between you and your vendor, do they share the same value your company does, and don’t forget to check the English level of the dedicated team.

# Avoid the Risks


The first risk to take into consideration when you start working with someone is security issues. Your personal data, all the information considering the delivery product must be under high protection. Make sure the company you start cooperation with, follows GDPR regulations, forbids employees to connect to public networks, and restricts database access. 

If your product involves several teams, ensure that all of them use the same tools for development and testing. This will prevent code integration issues and problems with bugs detection in the future.

Get everything in writing. Delays regulation, extra payments, project timelines, confidentiality issues, etc.

Applying best practices for managing offshore resources isn’t as easy as ABC. It requires time, effort, money, and a reliable outsourcing partner. inVerita offers profound expertise in building and managing productive and result-oriented offshore teams. We value our clients’ ideas, share up-to-date information about the development process, and provide regular financial reports. Every bit of your data is strongly protected, and every risk is assessed. 

If you want to learn more about our approach to managing an offshore development team, don’t hesitate to contact us.
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